Rendering Part 3: Beef and Pork

If you’ve ever watched an expert butcher at work, it’s really an amazing thing. To conclude our series on the rendering industry, we’d like to take a look at what this video doesn’t address: where the parts of the pig (and other red meats – namely cow) that don’t get eaten go.

As we saw with poultry, there are many parts of the animals that don’t get used for traditional consumption, but can be sustainably recycled back into various other things including feed supplements, fertilizer, and other byproducts. As with poultry, there are several notable byproducts from beef and pork rendering, with perhaps the most recognizable product being soap – this comes from rendering excess or unused fat, which you can even do at home.

The other big areas for beef and pork rendering are blood and bone meal. These are nitrogen-rich resources used in organic fertilizer, and for feed supplements. In the past, these processes were done “wet”, by essentially cooking the excess parts in huge vats of water and separating oils and fats in that way. These processes gave way to dehydrating and drying the materials, as drying proved to be a much more efficient process, and produced less waste-water.

At Uzelac Industries, we provide dryers to several processors in the rendering industry, in poultry, beef, and pork. We create totally unique custom solutions for our customers to fit the needs and specifications of their specific processes. It is with pride that we contribute to what is considered to be one of the oldest forms of recycling.